Saturday, June 16, 2018

China: Long live the national truck drivers’ strike!This is a declaration by the “Struggle Association”, an underground Marxist-Leninist-Maoist organization in China.

Posted by admin on June 16th, 2018

This is a declaration by the “Struggle Association”, an underground Marxist-Leninist-Maoist organization in China.

The truck drivers’ strike took place on June 8, two days prior to the
planned date. As of now, this spontaneous strike wave has rapidly
spread to Jiangxi, Shandong, Sichuan, Chongqing, Shanghai, Anhui, Hubei,
Zhejiang, and other provinces, elevating the strike to a national
level. Truck drivers from all over the
country have blocked major road with protest banners attached to their
vehicles, demanding higher transport prices, lower fuel prices,
improvement in living and working conditions, and abolish the panorama
of collusive monopoly, arbitrary fines, and constantly changing
policies. According to the drivers on strike, the strike would last for
at least ten days, and they will not give up until the regime concedes
to their demands.
The transport prices of truck drivers have barely increased since
2000. However, fuel prices have been constantly increasing, not
mentioning the incessant tolling and arbitrary fines by the police… The
harsh reality forced truck drivers to desperately seek for their
livelihood: processing as many orders as they can, driving for 12 hours
per day or more, and taking less than two days of break every month.
Truck drivers are only able to use National Highways as the incessant
tolling of freeways makes their runs no longer profitable. Nonetheless,
the National Highway network covers many dangerous roads: combined with
fatigue caused by longer driving hours, staying concentrated has become a
harder task for truck drivers. As a result, fatal accidents are now a
common occurrence. Other drivers are also beset with numerous
occupational illnesses and injuries. Truck driving has gradually become
a high-risk occupation. Furthermore, the already insufficient wages the
drivers risked their lives for are running out after subtracting fees
incurred from all kinds of tolls and gas from their earnings, making
them no longer able to sustain the lives of themselves and their family.
Other than this, what made the situation completely intolerable for
the Chinese truck drivers was the monopoly of Manbang Corporation – the
result of a merger between “Yun Man Man” and “Huo Che Bang”, two biggest
companies in the transportation sector – over the market through its
control of mobile applications, which again lowered the meager
transportation prices. Mr. Li, a striking truck driver, stated, “All of
us drivers (using the database app of “Manbang Corp”) must pay about
1,000 to 3,000 yuan per year to continue using their service. 10
messages cost 688 yuan. Another thing that pains us is the referral fee.
We are truck drivers; cargo owners look for trucks through the
platform: say they agree to pay 2,000 yuan when communicating with the
platform, but Yun Man Man would only give us 1,500 to 1,800 yuan when we
contact them, taking off the surplus. Now the prices are getting lower
and lower to the extent that we literally can’t run anymore.”
The genuine revolutionary Marxist-Leninist-Maoists firmly support this strike by our trucker brothers and sisters!
Strike is an indeprivable right and a weapon of struggle exercised
and took up by every worker exploited by the bourgeoisie. This ongoing
great truck drivers’ strike is one of the first nationwide large-scale
strikes in decades. Its importance is not limited to the truck drivers
alone, but also to the working masses of every arduous trade in all of
China. It made clear the fact that Chinese workers dare to break through
the prevailing white terror of the bourgeoisie and challenge corrupt
bureaucrats and capitalists on the streets, carrying forward a
collective resistance. The recovering rebelling spirit of the Chinese
proletariat is finally reflected in the tremendous class hatred through
concrete actions of the nationwide struggle against monopoly capitalism.
However, it must be held true both painfully and certainly, that this
strike would ultimately end in a tragic defeat. But the brave trucker
brothers and sisters are not the ones to blame.
This strike is a spontaneous struggle of dissatisfied truck drivers.
However, due to the fact that there exists no real nationwide labor
unions entrusted by the workers to jointly organize the strike effort,
to coordinate strikes in each province, to notify the masses of the
immediate situation of the strike and inspire more social strata to join
the struggle, to provide accurate directions and notifications, and to
send teams of agitators among the the truck driver masses to educate and
agitate, this strike is doomed to be isolated, disorganized, and
therefore easily broken up and struck down one by one; this
dissatisfaction would deplete and the resolve would waver in but a few
days. On the other hand, the bourgeoisie who has control over the state
machinery has the tightest organization.
The reactionaries are well aware of this. Starting from yesterday,
three days after the start of the strike, the police has pressured
striking truck drivers in all directions and tried to create division
among the strikers: many truck drivers who planned to go on strike were
forced to capitulate under heavy pressure and went back to driving,
cargo transport businesses in many locations have resumed operations,
severely weakening the strength of the strikers, making it no longer
possible to cause national price fluctuations and force the authorities
to concede through the stoppage of cargo transportation.
Facing the prospect of failure, the most urgent thing in front of
revolutionary Marxist-Leninist-Maoists is not to fill oneself with
indignation of the authorities (anyone could easily do that), but
self-criticisms in a serious manner.
The fundamental cause for the strike to fail at any moment is the
lack of a labor union or a revolutionary organization belongs to the
workers capable of coordinate and inspire strikes. A strike without the
leadership of such a strong revolutionary organization, even though
participated broadly and valiantly by workers, is unable to conquer
victory, as its scattered and indefinite strength is unable to stay
either protracted or concentrated. There are no weapons of theory
capable of reshaping the world sharper than Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, but
most domestic “Marxist-Leninist-Maoists”, although branding it as their
“beliefs”, are completely unable to apply it through practice, not
mentioning have never tried in a serious manner to build a nationwide
revolutionary organization united with the workers. This long period of
inactivity not only excluded and alienated Marxist-Leninist-Maoists from
political struggle, but also disabled the masses of the ability to
mount any resistance when they developed class consciousness themselves,
making most basic economic strikes like this not only unable to
succeed, but also confronted by the danger of repression. If the
revolutionaries aren’t organized tightly, the masses can’t be organized,
and if the masses aren’t organized, thoughts for any victory, including
economic gains in strikes, are delusive under the fascist dictatorship
of the bourgeoisie.
The bleak current situation is: if the liberation of the Chinese
proletariat, a giant, depends on its two legs: the left leg is the
seasoned proletarian revolutionary organization, and the right leg is
the rebellious consciousness of the proletarian masses. Neither leg is
strong enough, nonetheless, the left leg, comparing to its counterpart,
is severely dysplastic, and this symptom in turn restrained the growth
of the right leg, as it constituted a “Li Tieguai-style” giant: due to
its disability, every step of this giant – who was supposed to conquer
everything – towards victory became this difficult, every resistance
against the oppressors became this hopeless, tripping on almost every
step, and finally, ended up all black and blue. The reality has shown,
that the dilemma faced by the masses risen up in revolt and strike is
precisely caused by this group of pseudo-revolutionaries in their
armchairs for years doing nothing. Currently, the degree of organization
of revolutionary Marxist-Leninist-Maoists in our country is still close
to zero, making an unequal match with the working masses’ –
spontaneously striking and resisting – dissatisfaction with the current
system.
Regarding economic strikes, it should be realized that even their
victories wouldn’t solve the fundamental problem of exploitation: this
would at most reduce fuel prices temporarily, increase transportation
costs temporarily, limit embezzlement temporarily, and improve the
living condition of workers temporarily, but the bourgeoisie, who
appears to have taken a step back, would soon once more seize all fruits
of victories from these economic strikes using the state that it
clutches tightly in its hands when the workers scatter after their
supposed “victories”. When class consciousness of the people has yet to
develop and revolutionary organizations have yet to mature, economic
strikes can be a viable choice to train the masses to struggle against
the bourgeoisie; but if the workers are to smash the bourgeoisie’s
shackles once and for all, the only way forward is to launch large-scale
political strikes, expand the political rights of the workers, and set
the aim on the conquest of power, the reshaping of the society, in other
words, to establish a dictatorship of the proletariat and abolish the
fascist dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, as well as the relation of
production that exploits the workers and market economy under private
ownership that it defends, and replace them with a planned economy under
common ownership that utilizes all wealth to serve the livelihood of
the people. In China, to commence political strikes without taking up
arms is absolutely hopeless, just like to commence economic strikes
without organization is hopeless as well.
After the truckers started the strike, a group of suit-wearing
“democrats” who have been propagating for the American-style “democracy”
raised their voices in support in their villas, as if they represent
the interest of the worker masses – we cannot be fooled by them! We
cannot forget what kind of trash those neoliberal “democrats” worshiping
capitalist “democracy” are. We can expose the disguise of those
so-called “democrats” just like poking through a house of paper by
looking at what’s really going on in the noble example of their
“democracy”, the United States. If it were to be said that
“distinctions” exist between China and the US, then, the only
distinction is their distinct forms of “democracy”: one is where the
bourgeoisie appointing “people’s representatives” from top to bottom in
plain sight, forbidding anyone from resisting and striking; and the
other is where the bourgeoisie, through a self-directed farce of
democracy, let the masses “elect” senators representing the interest of
the bourgeoisie. In the “democratic” US under its dictatorship of the
bourgeoisie, the workers are also being exploited, also lacking a
discourse, also facing the repression of the police, also living in
slums, and since the ascension of Trump, even the robe of “democracy”
and the handful of “democratic rights” are being torn apart by the
capitalists themselves. It can be observed, that what
those holier-than-thou “democrats” wish to have is but another form of
the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie with another layer of “democracy”:
this system would only continue to worsen the conditions of the workers,
even placing China under the control of the US bourgeoisie again.
In the eyes of many, a third choice doesn’t exist besides the Western
capitalist “democracy” and the capitalist fascism which is ruling China
right now. This way, the masses are either used by the capitalist
“democracy” or the capitalist fascism. But a third choice exists, and it
is only not recognized by the broad masses of people because the
revolutionaries haven’t put in enough work. Any type of capitalist
states is the oppressor of the broad masses of people. The only road
that can liberate the working people is the elevation of the proletariat
to the position of ruling class and the proletarian revolution towards
global communism. This requires the proletariat to struggle without
being subjected or used by any force not a part of proletariat itself.
We can’t expect too much whether this nationwide truck drivers’
strike would solve anything, but it is a great beginning of a new era of
the awakening of the Chinese proletariat. Regardless of how much the
bourgeoisie tries to block information regarding this strike, they
cannot erase the deep impression it left on the masses. It brought a
whirlwind of struggle to a China almost suffocating from the capitalist
fascist dictatorship; the spontaneous nationwide action of truck drivers
stirred the sleeping backwater of the Chinese workers movement; but the
dilemma that came immediately after it rang a bell for us
Marxist-Leninist-Maoists.
This bell warned us that we have fallen behind the masses on the way
to revolution, and the masses are facing defeat because of this. It is
warning us to immediately engage in concrete struggles, to take up the
role of organizing workers all over the country; it is warning us to
dare to hold ourselves responsible for every failure, to organize
ourselves into a national revolutionary organization, and with this
leverage, organize the proletariat into a giant that will win the
complete victory in liberating itself.
Long live the national truck drivers’ strike!
source: www.redspark.nu/en/imperialist-states/china-long-live-the-national-truck-drivers-strike/